Credidi me felem vidisse
by KimotoCat
Summary: Mulder and Scully are teamed up with a strange pair of FBI-agents in order to find a missing woman – an even stranger feline woman whom they have met before. Sequel to ‘Felis Domestica’. Finished.
1. Part 1

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Classification: A short story in a known environment – Washington DC._

_Spoilers: None. The setting is somewhere around late 6th season._

_Requirements: Well, actually you may need to read "Felis Domestica" by this author to understand what's going on here. If you don't know it, read it on this site immediately!_

_Pronunciation: Kimoto Takita is pronounced Kimata Takeetah, stressing the middle syllables in each word, okay? Figure out the rest for yourself._

_Summary: Mulder had a meeting with an unusual woman a while back. Now two new agents join him and Scully in the search for her. But something about those new agents is not right…_

_o o o_

_An official and fully legal disclaimer:_

_Special agent Fox Mulder, special agent Dana Scully, A.D. Walther Skinner and the concept of the X-files is a registered trademark and property of Chris Carter and FOX. This is not a work of copyright violation, but should be seen as a contribution to a piece of television art._

_However, the Kimoto Takita©, Francis Floyd Vandenberg© and Randolph Joshua Simmons© characters, complete with appearances and abilities, are the properties of this author._

_o o o_

_Author's ramblings: This was only my second fanfic and it has been waiting on my hard disc for ages. Please R&R._

_o o o _

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 1

To Fox Mulder, special agent with the FBI, some days were good days. They started with nice weather, they continued with doughnuts and fresh coffee, followed by an interesting and challenging but not impossible assignment for the Bureau. Mulder liked days like that.

This day was not like that.

First it was raining. Second, he could not get a doughnut when he arrived at work, soaked to the bone. And as for an interesting assignment, it was rarely a good sign when he was asked to A.D. Skinners office 'right away' for some change of schedule news.

"You can go right in," the secretary said as Mulder entered. "They are expecting you."

"They?" he muttered as he continued through the door. This was also not a good sign for the day.

Inside Skinners office, three men were waiting for Mulder. At the desk, looking relaxed as always, Walther Skinner was sitting. He looked up when Mulder came in.

"Good morning, agent Mulder," he said and made a gesture with his hand towards the other two men in the room. "Come in and meet agents Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons."

"Pleased to meet you," Mulder said to the eldest of the two new men, none of whom he had ever seen before. They shook hands, uncordially and professionally, none of them knowing enough to pass any judgement on the other. Yet.

"I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance, agent Mulder," agent Vandenberg said with a peculiar smile. "I've heard a lot about you. You seem to be quite an expert on, well, extraordinary things."

He spoke with a heavy accent, not unlike British, and there was something about his lean, almost pathologic face, Mulder did not like. Perhaps it was the eyes; Mulder knew to have seen eyes like that before. Cold and steady like reinforced steel. He did not know this man yet, but he had always had a very keen instinct for others and he felt certain that he would not like him even if he did get to know him.

"Pleased," Simmons said abruptly as he and Mulder shook hands, hardly even making any eye contact.

"Likewise," Mulder replied, equally abrupt, briefly studying the young, handsome man in front of him. And handsome was the word; golden hair in a short, almost military haircut, well tanned, white teeth, a decent suit and all in all good looking, almost a travesty of an FBI-agent. Mulder felt ready to bet that this man carried a pair of dark Ray-Bans in his pocket.

"Sit down, agent Mulder," Skinner suggested. It did not sound like much of an offer, more like an order and Mulder obeyed. The other agents also sat down in the two other chairs next to Mulder.

"Agents Vandenberg and Simmons have been assigned to a mission, having some connection to an incident a while ago involving you," Skinner explained. "They are looking for one Kimoto Takita, a feline looking woman, who escaped Bethesda Naval Hospital's mental ward a month ago."

"Yes, I remember her," Mulder said, now taking more interest in the affair. How could he forget?

On a boring night he had met her at a bar and she had told him her story. That is, she had told him a story about time travel, other worlds and magic, and claimed for it to be the truth. When Mulder had summoned Scully, his partner and a skilled physician, to help him learn more about this peculiar case, Kimoto had tried to kill her self, rather than ending up in a mental asylum. She did not succeed though, and the very next day she had escaped from the hospital, leaving no trace.

"She is rather feline in appearance," agent Vandenberg said, observing Mulder's reaction. "She has a tail."

"I know," Mulder answered. It was true; he had been attracted to her as the mysterious person she was, because she looked incredible feline. She had a tail, whiskers, canines and huge, emerald cat-eyes. Even Scully had been forced to admit that there were traits of the greater felines in her physical appearance. "I met her and we talked. I suppose you've read the report?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid," Vandenberg said with a smile, which Mulder did not like. The smile was more a professional grimace, showing the well-polished teeth, and it did not reach the grey eyes.

"Agent Mulder," Skinner broke in. "You are to work with these two men on this assignment. When agent Scully comes back from Minnesota, she is to join the three of you. Agent Vandenberg has evidence that Kimoto Takita probably still is in Washington DC and your assignment is to find her."

"What do we do when we find her?" Mulder asked.

"That depends," Vandenberg answered before Skinner could speak. "On her behaviour. She was suicidal but also aggressive when last approached. It is either a mental hospital or it is questioning. I believe she was armed with a weapon of unknown origin, is that not so?"

"Yes, she was," Mulder admitted, almost but not quite hiding his repugnance against both Vandenberg and the assignment. "She carried a heavy gun, discharging electric bolts at high voltage and with effect at some distance. The Department of Defence has the weapon."

"Oh, the Department of Defence…" Vandenberg looked as if this was new to him, which puzzled Mulder slightly. But then, this man puzzled him. He had a gut feeling that agent Vandenberg was hiding something. Something very important.

"Yes, but we do have photographic material."

"Of both the weapon and the woman?" Vandenberg inquired.

"Yes, both. I have substantial evidence in the case, as she was admitted to hospital. Several tests were made before she could make her escape."

"That's good. It may make things easier," Vandenberg said with another automatic smile.

"Excuse me, agents," Skinner broke in. "You seem to get along now. Good." He paused briefly, flashing a smile. "Agent Mulder, I would like if you were to take agents Vandenberg and Simmons to your office and brief them there."

"Yes Sir, I'll do that," Mulder said, getting up from the chair.

"And agent Vandenberg will be in charge of this operation, is that understood?"

Taken a bit aback by this, Mulder nodded in obedience and left the office, closely followed by these two new men, special agents Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons.

o o o

The men left the office and Mulder lead the way to his humble quarters in the basement. He opened the door and gestured to the older man to enter the meagre room, which was the basis of Mulder's operations – his work on the so-called X-Files, cases of supernatural phenomena and inexplicable events.

"Welcome to my humble residence," Mulder said as he removed a pile of photos from a chair. "Have a seat and I'll se what I can find."

"Thank you, agent Mulder," Vandenberg said as he placed himself in the chair, utterly ignoring that it left agent Simmons without anything to sit on. "Funny, I would have expected a man of your status to have a more impressive office. Or is this just a storage-room?"

"It is just a storage-room," Mulder returned, flipping through some of the many files in his cabinet. "And it is also my office. My theories do not get along well with everybody upstairs. Anyway, what have you heard?"

"They say that you hunt for little green men," Vandenberg said in a calm voice.

Mulder briefly looked up from his archives, just to see the expression on the face of the man, but he did not seem as if mocking him.

"Not green men. Grey," he finally replied. "When they are in season."

"And the rest of the time?"

"You tell me," Mulder said in an irritated voice. "You seem to have heard about me."

"I always listen a lot, one can learn from it," Vandenberg said. "They call you-"

"Spooky Mulder, yeah, I know," Mulder broke in. "But how about you guys? You're not regulars here, even I can tell that much. What have you got on Kimoto Takita and how did you get assigned to it in the first place?"

"To take things one at the time, we got assigned because of Kimoto Takita crossing my path, not the other way around," Vandenberg explained. "I have to tell you that our delusional feline has started on a personal crime-spree in this city. She has been sighted on several occasions, leaving private homes. I've been after her since a peculiar break-in at Marlin, a software company in central DC."

"So we are chasing a common thief?"

"Yes, I hate to say it, but she seems to have started a career as, well, a cat-burglar."

Mulder smiled at the pun and pulled out a manila folder from the archives.

"Here it is," he said. "Another X-File, the encounter with Kimoto Takita. Have you been reassigned to Washington?"

"Yes, Simmons and I were put here recently," Vandenberg replied in a concise respond as if avoiding him. "What have you got?"

"Well, I met her as a civilian in a bar, The Sewer, at Jefferson Road downtown…" Mulder explained in detail what he had experienced and how a seemingly innocent meeting had turned into a case-file. He also tried his best to describe what had happened at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Only he did not mention that Kim had promised that they would meet again. Nor had that been in his report, all though Scully knew about it. Dana Scully did however not approve of it!

"As for the presumed Kimoto Takita, the explanation to her extreme physical appearance remains unknown," Mulder read from Scully's report. "How an otherwise human person can evolve into this form and mental capacity remains an unanswered question to science. If we did not have photographic material, x-rays and tissue-samples from this creature to support the claim about her existence, it would be my scientific opinion that she could not possibly exist."

"You have samples?" This was the first time, Simmons spoke and it almost startled Mulder to hear his voice again.

"Yes, but not here. It's in storage, some of it. Why?"

"All things taken into considerance, those samples may be interesting," Vandenberg avoided him before Simmons had a chance to speak any further. "Please do continue."

"Regarding Kimoto Takita's whereabouts since her escape from the mental ward on Bethesda Naval Hospital, there is very little to say," Mulder read on. "Investigations reveal that she must have climbed out the window of the 3rd floor room and left through the park. Extensive search, including the use of police dogs, has not lead to an arrest of her…"

"As for the weapon, the one we talked about, it says…" Mulder flipped through some more pages. "Here it is: The weapon has obviously been made from an unknown facility, as the technology presented within it are not known to any department within the U.S. Officials from the Department of Defence have made a claim on the weapon, which is to be the focus of further investigations. Any further details regarding it have been classified as a matter of national security."

"Did you per chance get a good look at it?" Vandenberg inquired.

"Good look at it? I was shot with it!"

"Shot? Sounds bad."

"Well, almost shot. It seems that the weapon emits some kind of electrical charge and it was fired next to my head," Mulder explained. "I was knocked out, but no permanent injuries."

"It cannot have made any direct impact," Simmons pondered. "If it had, you would have been dead."

"You think so?" Mulder asked, rising an eyebrow and gazing at the otherwise silent agent.

"If it was a real weapon, and everything indicates that it really was no toy, then a point blanc impact would have been deadly!" Simmons explained in a humbly excusing voice.

"Yeah, I guess so," Mulder muttered. "But now you know what I know. So, what can you tell me?"

"I was investigating some ordeal in another case, when I came across a security-camera recording with a cat-burglar with a tail," Vandenberg explained. "When I dug deeper into it, I found various tracks which made the dogs go crazy and sent me speculating about the origin of this particular burglar. Further materials revealed her feline appearance and I have determined for agent Simmons and myself to find her now. Mind you; she's good. Really good."

"Well, I guess cat-burgling would come natural to her," Mulder smirked. Then he got serious again. "Now what do we do? Have you got anything about her present whereabouts?"

"Yes, well, I have tried to find out some facts about her M.O. If she follows her usual pattern of behaviour, she will not be hard to target."

"And when we target her?"

"Careful approach, as far as I've heard. Just like you said, she is believed to have certain, hrmh, gifts. She must be perceived as armed and dangerous," Vandenberg said in a voice with a steel-like ring to it. "But given her nature, it is important to catch her alive."

"I had not considered anything else," Mulder grumbled in a stern voice. "I know she is feline, but I did not consider her a piece of game."

"Sorry, I did not mean to imply anything else, agent Mulder," Vandenberg said, offering another of his professional smiles.

Mulder regarded him carefully. He was lean, grey and withered in an uncanny sense of the word and what ever facial expression he tried to muster, none of it reached those cold eyes. With a shiver, Mulder realised where he had seen something like that before. The Cigarette Smoking Man. They had common traits. No wonder that he instinctively loathed agent Vandenberg.

"More practically speaking, we do some paperwork now," Vandenberg explained after which he suddenly looked up, meeting Mulder's hazel eyes with his own steel. His look gave the word piercing a new dimension. It was almost as if Vandenberg was looking right through him. A bit like the cold and uncaring way, CSM used to eye people. 'I know things about you,' the look said. 'And I know that you do not like me, but I don't have to care!'

"What kind of paperwork?" Mulder inquired in a neutral voice.

"We have to go through some more files about recent cat-burglaries in DC," Vandenberg answered, taking out papers from his briefcase. "To look for more evidence of a certain pattern in her M.O."

"I thought you said you already had done that," Mulder said.

"I have, but this is a big city and I do not have enough," Vandenberg answered, sending Mulder a sharp stare. "We need to be certain about her. Once we close in, she may detect us. As you all ready know, she has some ability for detection!"

"Deceive, inveigle and obfuscate," Mulder mumbled in a low voice.

"What was that?" Vandenberg almost snapped at him, but Mulder noticed a smile in Simmons' face and ignored the other agents' hostility.

"Oh nothing, just an old saying amongst some friends of mine," Mulder answered as he reached for some of the files Vandenberg handed to him. "So, what are we looking for?"

"Unusual cat-burgling," Vandenberg said. "She seems to have a primary M.O. including complicated climbing and entering through the kind of windows, where people would not suspect anybody entering at all. She works alone and steals only money or easily cashed items. At one site, she had not even taken some bearer bonds lying on a desk."

"Then what has she taken?"

"Money, food, a gun..."

"A gun?"

"Yes, an automatic .44, left by a security guard. She is armed now."

"She always was," Mulder muttered, starting to look through some of the papers. Piles of files, all regarding cat-burglaries.

o o o

_To be continued…_


	2. Part 2

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1._

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 2

Special agent Dana Scully had the same kind of gut-feeling about this day as the one, Fox Mulder had felt when he entered the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She had been on a rotten assignment in Minnesota, doing an autopsy on a viciously killed middle-aged man and at that time, she had dreamed about returning home soon.

Dana Scully had seen a lot of things, but the cruelty of the World could still amaze her. And now, as she walked towards Mulder's office, knowing that he was already on another assignment in which she was to join him, she knew to herself that she would not like this one.

Besides, it was raining.

Mulder opened the door and came out to meet her as soon as she knocked.

"Hello Scully," he smiled in a fake grimace. "Excuse me, agents Vandenberg and Simmons. Just saying hi to my partner."

"Naturally. Go ahead," a steel voice sounded from the office just as Mulder closed the door.

"Hi," Scully said, looking at Mulder with concern in her eyes. "Had a rough day? Who was that?"

"A rough day? Me?" Mulder sighed. "Come, I'll buy us a drink."

He walked towards the venting machine, followed by Scully who sensed his repugnance. Without a word, he got them both an ice tea from it. Then he turned to look at his friend and partner.

"Ever had one of those days, where your every instinct is yelling at you to stay in bed?"

"Yes," Scully said thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, I felt this way today at two in the morning, when I was busy in Minnesota, doing an autopsy on a dead man who turned out to be the victim of his nine-year old son."

"Minnesota? Well, and just to make things better, you returned to this place."

"Talk to me."

"In my office I have two special agents, Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons, going through files along with me. Guess what we are looking for?"

"What?"

"A cat-burglar!" Mulder exclaimed with a huge smile. "And not just any cat-burglar. This one really has a tail! Kimoto Takita, our friend from the inn!"

"The one from the Sewer?" Scully exclaimed through a mouthful of ice-tea, now taking a serious interest in the case. "Your biological miracle?"

"The same. Only this time, she has CSM's father and 'I Love FBI' looking for her."

"What?"

"Those two men give me the creeps!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Instinct, Scully. Instinct," Mulder said with a fingertip at his eye. "I can tell, you know. The older one, Francis Vandenberg, he is hiding something so big that it couldn't be stashed away inside the Grand Canyon. So in stead, they've shoved him into my meagre office. Along with some greenhorn handsome cloak-and-dagger guy who has spent more time in a solarium than at Quantico."

"What makes you think that Vandenberg is hiding something?"

"He knows a lot about some things and preciously little about others. He knew about the gun, but not that the military had it. He also knew about her, but preciously little about the exact case. In other words, he is not in any way a regular FBI-agent! I mean, even the name sucks. Vandenberg?"

"You're saying?"

"I'm not saying the badge ain't real," Mulder grumbled, sipping his ice tea. "All I am saying is that I bet the ink is still wet. They are not here as regular agents. Vandenberg's even in charge of this operation."

"Sounds like fun," Scully admitted in a dry voice.

"It is. Only thing is, Skinner assigned you and me with those two, so we're stuck for now."

"I see."

"Yeah, now I only have to find out who Vandenberg really is and where he is from." Mulder said, wolfing down the last ice tea. "At least I don't think Simmons is hiding as much, all though I am not sure about him either. But he is probably just bullied around by Vandenberg. I bet some people in high places are toying around with us again. And I do not like that!"

Scully agreed to this, but said nothing. In stead, she followed Mulder into his office where she was introduced to the two agents; Francis Vandenberg and Randolph Simmons.

And Dana Scully couldn't help but agree with Mulder as she met the older man. His eyes were dead cold and his behaviour was careful in a tense way. As he was in charge she did not have any choice but to follow orders. As for the younger one, Simmons, Scully could see Mulder's point, but she disagreed about him being pure greenhorn. He seemed more honest and hardworking. Then again, to seem honest was not hard when compared to Francis Vandenberg.

Soon, Scully had joined the men in their efforts to find out more about Kimoto Takita's M.O. A feline cat-burglar who did not steal any real values. Unusual to say the least. But as an agent, a doctor and a scientist, Dana Scully had long ago reached the conclusion about Kimoto Takita that she really was unusual. In many ways.

o o o

"There it is!" Mulder exclaimed in an eager voice. "The pattern! She steals from offices and privates which actually do have one thing in common!"

"What?" Simmons and Scully asked as in one voice. Vandenberg said nothing, but he did look up.

"The offices have all been cleaned by outsiders the day of the burglary. A cleaning company known as 'Clean-Bean' has had their staff in the building within the latest two or three days."

"Perhaps we should go and ask some questions at 'Clean-Bean'," Vandenberg suggested.

"Perhaps we should," Mulder agreed as he got up and snapped his jacket. As always in peculiar assignments, his repugnance against Vandenberg had been forced to give way to his eagerness for a while.

Scully also got up and followed the three men, casually controlling her sidearm. She noticed that Simmons did the same; briefly taking out a heavy-duty automatic which seemed to clash somewhat with his otherwise polished image until he shoved it back into a shoulder-holster.

They quickly got a car and left for the 'Clean-Bean' company.

o o o

"This is it! Clean-Bean Cleaning Company," Mulder said as he drove the silver Ford into the parking ground next to a grey, dirty looking two-story building. "And there's our best evidence yet!" he said, pointing as he climbed out of the car.

The other three looked in the direction Mulder pointed and saw a small, greyish cat who was sitting at the roof of a shack near by, licking a paw and gazing at the intruders with consent in its green eyes.

"Well, it does fit some of the description," Mulder excused, shrugging his shoulders as Vandenberg sent him an icy stare. "Okay, sorry. I forgot that this was a no-humour zone. My mistake!"

Mulder also ignored Scully's warning eyes as they all walked towards the grey building.

If Vandenberg had any comments to Mulder's words, he kept them to himself, just as he kept everything else to himself. Only Simmons smiled at the joke.

They entered through the glass doors at the one end of the building, the part housing the cleaning company, and came into a slightly dusty hall, almost a contradiction in appearance to the goal and services of this particular company. The name and logo, a bean-shaped man with a broom, were in black printing on the wall farthest from the door and behind a desk, a short, dark woman was sitting.

A small sign on the desk said that her name was Emily King and that she was a secretary of 'Clean-Bean'. Mulder swallowed a sarcastic comment as he noticed that Miss King was in fact busy doing her nails.

"Excuse me, miss," Scully said, taking out her badge. The others did the same. "I am special agent Dana Scully from the FBI. These are agents Mulder, Simmons and Vandenberg, also FBI. We are here conducting an investigation. Could we speak to the manager please?"

Emily King looked up with the kind of excitement in her face coming from watching to many television series about the FBI. Mulder could tell by the look in her eyes that she could spend several weeks telling uncaring friends about her encounter with the real FBI now, even if nothing really happened.

"Hi, Mrs Scully, and welcome to Clean-Bean," the secretary smiled with an overeager grimace as she got up. "Yes, off course. Mister Thorndyke can see you right away. Yes, come right this way."

Scully did not correct the secretary's mistake about her marital status. In stead they all followed the small woman down the hallway towards the office of Mr Thorndyke, the man in charge here.

Mulder couldn't help but ask himself what Mr Thorndyke would think about his secretary letting in four FBI-agents without telling him about it or even just asking. But then that was not his problem.

Nor was it his problem that Miss King seemed to be eating agent Simmons with her dark eyes.

And he hoped it would not become his problem that this seemed mutual by the looks in Randolph Simmons blue eyes.

"Here it is, agents," Miss King smiled as she knocked a door at the end of the hallway. A steel sign with black letters informed that this was the office of Henry Thorndyke. "Mr Thorndyke? There are some FBI-agents who would like to speak to you!"

Without awaiting Mr Thorndyke's answer, she opened the door and let them in to a shining office.

If the rest of Clean-Bean showed dust and a touch of negligence, the office of Henry Thorndyke did nothing of the kind. In stead, this place was a display in modern steel and black, kept in a clean, almost sterile design that seemed only to match the man in the black seat behind the equally black glass-covered desk.

"Miss King, what is this all about?" he asked as he got up. "Who do you say these people are?"

"FBI-agents, Mr Thorndyke," the secretary smiled. "It's about some investigation!" She said the last word as if in contained more mystery and enchantment than anything else she'd ever encountered did. It occurred to Mulder that perhaps it did.

"Mr Thorndyke?" Mulder said, taking out his badge again and approached the man. "I am special agent Fox Mulder and these are special agents Scully, Simmons and Vandenberg. Could we speak to you for a moment?"

"Naturally, agent Mulder," Thorndyke said with the concerned look, people always had when they were confronted with the FBI. "Please have a seat. Miss King, would you get us some coffee?"

"Yes, Mr Thorndyke. Right away." The secretary left the office, unable to hide her disappointment.

Vandenberg took out one of the chairs in front of the desk and offered it to Scully in a gentleman-like gesture, after which he took the only other chair for himself. Mulder and Simmons remained standing, as they did not have much choice.

"I am sorry, I only have two chairs for visitors," Thorndyke said with an excusing gesture. "This is a small cleaning-company and I do not get a lot of visitors and definitely not from the FBI. Now, what can I do for you?"

"First of all, I would like to ask you if you know this woman?" Mulder said, handing a picture to Thorndyke. The picture showed Kimoto Takita or rather, it showed her the way she would look if she tried to hide her whiskers, shoved her pointed ears under her hair, dyed the hair brown and kept her mouth shut around the canines. A fine piece of retouch-artwork made by the technicians at the Bureau and showing Kim as human as she could become without plastic surgery. Or a shave...

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I think I do," Thorndyke said. "It looks a bit like one of the ladies at our day team. I am not sure though, the one she looks like has black hair, not brown."

"She could have dyed the hair more than once," Mulder said, slightly distracted by the first reaction of emotion he had seen in Vandenberg's face. He had seemed relieved!

"Well, like I said, it could be her. I hope she's not in any kind of trouble?"

"Under what name is she working here?" Scully asked. "It could be the woman we are looking for and if it is, she could be working under a false name."

"Has she murdered anybody?" Thorndyke asked in a slightly coarse voice.

"Not that we know," Vandenberg snapped. "What makes you ask?"

"Erh, well, I don't know…" Thorndyke answered, suddenly being intimidated by Vandenberg's grey gaze." "I guess I… Well, sorry."

"No need," Scully said. "Now please, Mr Thorndyke, what can you tell us about this woman?"

"Well, her name is Katherine Thompson and she has been with us for just about one month," the manager explained with his eyes wandering uneasily between the present agents. "She works hard and there has been no trouble. No trouble at all. She is very skilled."

"Skilled?" Vandenberg inquired. "At cleaning? In what way?"

"Well, cleaning windows in high altitudes, reaching stuff, that kind of things. And she is not scared of anything. No yelling at spiders or mice, you know. She even fenced off some stray dogs the other day."

"You seem to know your staff well," Vandenberg said in a voice sounding accusing without directly implying anything. "Have you been talking a lot to this woman?"

"Yes, well, some," Thorndyke admitted. "She was, well… I have…" The man stopped as his face grew red and sweaty.

"Have you had an affair with Miss Thompson?" Vandenberg asked, piercing the poor man with his steel eyes.

"No!" he exclaimed. "That is, yes, well, I tried to. We talked, but she did not want to. I thought she would, but…"

"You haven't given up, have you?" Vandenberg continued mercilessly.

"No, I guess not," Thorndyke admitted. "She has something, well, special about her. She is a tigress in disguise. Look, my wife died four years ago, there's nothing wrong with this and I don't have to answer for it! I have not tried to force her into anything, you know."

"We did not say that," Mulder said, thus avoiding Vandenberg's comments. "Can you tell us where she lives or where she is now?"

"Yes, well, she is at work," Thorndyke mumbled. Then he looked up and met Mulder's eyes. "Has she done anything wrong? Murdered anyone?"

"Nothing of the kind," Mulder assured the man. "We have some questions to ask her about a very important case, that's all. In fact, I don't think she has violated any serious laws."

Scully gave Mulder a stare. This could hardly be said to be true, even if it was also not really untrue either. Being a freak of nature was hardly a crime in it self and the accusations of cat-burglary were yet to be proven.

"Why do you think she has murdered anyone?" Simmons asked.

"I don't know, really. I do not think she has murdered anybody. Not really." He briefly looked at the desk, and then he looked up again. "I am just very certain that she is able to kill if she wants to. I don't know. She is a wild one."

"I know," Mulder said, hiding a smile. "Where is she working now?"

"Her team are at Teen-Hut at noon, it's a fast-food restaurant. After that, they are to clean at the Toledo Sports-Centre, which would probably take all afternoon."

"And her address when not working?" Scully inquired.

Thorndyke gave an address in the neighbourhood not far from the place where Mulder had met her the first time. A lousy part of town, barely a real neighbourhood, more like somewhere providing roof and some shelter.

The agents thanked Thorndyke and left the office, leaving Mulder's card and phone-number in case he heard anything from Kim.

In fact, Miss King never got around serving the coffee; Henry Thorndyke had asked her to fetch, as Simmons said when they left the building.

"I noticed," Vandenberg answered to this. "I bet she was listening outside the door as we spoke. But never mind, I just hope that Henry Thorndyke is not on the phone, warning his puss about us."

"Puss?" Scully mumbled in a low but angered voice.

"I am not sure," Mulder said. "But I do not think he is the kind of man who would do that."

"You may be right," Vandenberg stated as they entered the silver Ford. "But I suggest that we go back to the Bureau, get another vehicle and split up: Two of us can go to Teen-Hut and from there to Takita's apartment as it's near and the two others can go to Toledo Sports-Centre."

"Good idea," Mulder admitted. "Who goes where?"

"You and I go to Toledo, Scully and Simmons to Teen-Hut."

It did not sound like a suggestion and Mulder knew that it was not.

Francis F Vandenberg was in charge of this operation.

o o o

_To be continued…_


	3. Part 3

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1._

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 3

The black Toyota drove up to the sidewalk outside Toledo Sports-Centre and Fox Mulder and Francis Vandenberg got out.

"She could be here," Vandenberg said as he looked at the concrete wall in front of him. He did not explain himself, in stead he walked towards the entrance without deigning to order Mulder to follow.

The two men entered into a hallway, which would usually be loud with happy crowds, going to see a sports game or hear good music. A poster explained that "Killer Bees", a heavy-metal band, had been here yesterday evening and judging from the messy floor, there had been a lot of people here to listen to them.

"Killer Bees," Mulder smiled at the poster. "Know them?"

"No," Vandenberg snapped shortly.

Mulder kept his mouth shut and skipped telling the joke, he had just invented about the band. He did not feel much like making Francis Vandenberg smile. He was not sure the withered man was able to appreciate a good laugh.

"Hey, there's no entrance here!"

The two men both turned to look at the young woman, who was yelling at them. She wore a 'Clean-Bean' outfit and a bucket and she was looking at them with a lot of authority.

"This is a restricted area," she continued in a southern accent. "There is no public access now. We're cleaning it. Now, please leave."

"Excuse me, Miss," Mulder said as he reached for his badge.

"Mrs," she snapped at him. "Mrs Raymonds, in fact. Now…" She stopped as her eyes landed on Mulder's badge.

"Fox Mulder," he introduced himself. "And this is agent Vandenberg. We're with the FBI and we are here looking for somebody."

"How the Hell was I to know that?" Mrs Raymonds defended her self. "Well, go ahead, agents. Can I help you or something?"

"As a matter of fact, maybe you can," Vandenberg said as he shoved his badge away again and took out a picture, handing it towards the woman. "This is Miss Thompson; she should be working with your company. Do you know where we may find her?"

"Erh, yeah, I know," Mrs Raymonds stuttered, looking up at Vandenberg. "Is she in any kind of trouble or something?"

"We just want to talk to her," Vandenberg assured her without moving a muscle. "Now, please Mrs Raymonds. Where do we find her?"

"She's somewhere up in them benches behind the northern goal or something," the woman answered, obviously intimidated by Vandenberg's steel eyes and their FBI-badges. "If she's finished there, she'd be at the press room, messing away or something."

"Thank you very much, Mrs Raymonds," Vandenberg said with another of his snakelike smiles. "You've been most helpful."

"Oh, that's nothing," Mrs Raymonds said in a hesitating smile. "Anything else, I can do for you fellas?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, there is," Vandenberg continued to smile. "If you would be so kind as to wait down here until we're finished doing our business here. It is somewhat confidential, you understand."

"Sure do," Mrs Raymonds said with the kind of smile, people used to have when a simple order could turn into the event of the week. When the event of the week could be to be ordered around by FBI agents…

Vandenberg turned away from the woman, giving her no further notice, being perfectly aware that she would do as she was told. Mulder followed, also not saying anything to Mrs Raymonds.

"I better call the others that Takita is here," he said to Vandenberg as they climbed the stairs, approaching the goal-rows.

"Do," Vandenberg answered shortly.

Mulder stopped on the stairs, took out his cellular phone and dialled Scully's number while Vandenberg continued upwards. First there was a tone; then Scully's voice introduced her at the other end.

"Scully, it's me," he said. "We're at the sports-centre. There's no doubt, Kimoto Takita is here."

"Mulder? I'm glad to hear from you," Scully exclaimed. "The other agent, Randolph Simmons, he has left. He said he had to find out something. And that's not the biggest problem."

"What are you saying?"

"Agent Francis F Vandenberg is a hoax!"

"What?"

"I do not know how he did it," Scully said in a restless voice. "But he is not listed anywhere here. There is no agent Francis Vandenberg within the FBI and apparently there never was. I was trying to reach the two of you, phoning Elsa at the office, when I found out."

Mulder hesitated to speak.

"Mulder, get out of there. I'll call for backup and then we can find out, who he really is."

"He must be good," Mulder said as he looked up the stairs. Vandenberg was nowhere to be seen; he had probably continued upwards. "He made Skinner believe that he was to be in charge of things. Who ever he is, he is good."

"Mulder, get out of there!" Scully's voice insisted.

"Somebody has to be at Kim's side," Mulder answered. "And I don't think that Vandenberg is."

Before Scully could answer this, Mulder disconnected and put the phone in his pocket. In stead, he took out his gun, cocked it and continued up the stairs.

o o o

"Come right out, Miss Takita. I know you're there."

Vandenberg's voice echoed through the emptiness of the benches behind the goal but was answered only by silence. The lean man proceeded with caution as he carefully studied his surroundings.

Behind Vandenberg, Mulder had finished his phone-call and was approaching the benches, carrying his sidearm casually in his one hand. As he watched the other man at a distance, he could see him unholster a heavy gun of a very bulky design. It occurred to Mulder that this gun was not built for just wounding its target and with even more caution, he continued upwards.

"Mulder! How nice to see you again!"

The yell came as a surprise to both the men. Vandenberg froze on the spot and Mulder turned to look at the door of the pressroom. A woman was standing there, waving in a dramatic gesture with what seemed to be a damp piece of cloth. Even if her hair was darkened and her tail hidden, Mulder needed only the one glance to recognise Kimoto Takita.

"Listen, Kimoto," he yelled towards her as he took a few steps forward. "You'll have to come along with me. There are unanswered questions!"

"I know things weren't only at their best when we last met," Kim shouted at him. "But at least you agreed on 'Kim'. Have I let you down?"

"Sorry, Kim," Mulder returned, slowly continuing forwards and noticing that Vandenberg did the same. "Now, please come along."

"Business or pleasure?"

"Business, I'm afraid!"

"Okay, nothing personal then."

Before Mulder or Vandenberg could react, Kim simply withdrew into the pressroom, shutting the door behind her and, judging from the sound of it, locking it from the inside.

"Go this way," Vandenberg ordered. "I'll go the other way around!"

"Hey, wait," Mulder called to the other man as he quickly ran towards him, holding his gun ready at his side. "I've gotta ask you one thing."

"What?" Vandenberg had stopped again, briefly turning to meet the eyes of his partner.

It was unclear if it was Mulder's gun or his expression that alerted Vandenberg, but something made him raise his gun and point it at Mulder with the speed of an attacking snake.

"Who are you?" Mulder asked, panting a bit from the running.

"It really doesn't matter," the other man answered. "My name is Francis Vandenberg and you are to co-operate with me. That's all you need to know."

"Bullshit!"

"I really did think of you as a man of a better language," Vandenberg remarked, almost smiling. "But alas. You have to trust me. However I am, so to speak, on the right side in this."

"What is the right side in this?"

"Sorry, agent Mulder, but we do not have time for it now. Perhaps later. Now, in a slow motion, toss your weapon over the side of the fence, down towards the field."

"But-"

"Do it!" Vandenberg snapped and made a suggestive gesture with his free hand.

Sending Vandenberg an icy stare, Mulder complied and threw his gun as instructed. Then he looked at him again.

"There's no time. We have to get to Kimoto Takita now," Vandenberg said as if he read Mulder's mind. "I swear it is the best solution for everybody, including her."

"Why would I trust you?"

"You obviously wouldn't," Vandenberg sighed. "That's why I had to disarm you. Now, leave this place at once."

"What if I don't?"

"Then I'll pacify you," Vandenberg declared in a dead calm voice. "Get out!"

Before Mulder really had time to find a good answer to this, Vandenberg had turned around and was continuing upwards towards the press room. Mulder briefly stood still, looking towards him, and then he turned and ran down the stairs. He had to get his gun if he was to make any difference up there.

Fox Mulder ran as fast as he could out into the field where he quickly retrieved his weapon, having a pretty good idea of where it fell. He made sure he was ready to use it, then turned around to run to Kimoto Takita's rescue.

Just as he did, he heard the sound of gunshots. Two different weapons were fired after which silence once more fell over the stadium, leaving Mulder with an uncanny feeling about what had happened.

Hesitating only for a second, feeling much like half a year, he started to run towards the pressroom. He jumped across several steps and virtually flew towards the open door to the room, entering with his gun ready.

It was not a pretty sight. Who ever had been hit had been hit badly. There was blood on the table and splashes of it on the wall. A penetrating shot, hitting where it hurt. But other than the blood and a coarse stench of gunpowder, there was nothing of any real interest in here. Mulder was unable to tell who had been hit and what else had happened.

Gritting his teeth, he ran outside again, scanning the rows of seats for any signs of life.

"Kim!" It was a pretty desperate search to run through row after row of empty seats, shouting for his feline friend and getting no answer, but it seemed the only right thing to do at present. "Kim! It's me, Fox Mulder, and I'm here to help you! Please…"

He knew that Vandenberg had been serious when he said he would pacify him if he didn't leave. He also knew that this made it even more dangerous to run like this, shouting for Kim, but like he told Scully, somebody had to be on Kim's side.

"Mulder!"

When the answer came, it was not a shout but a coarse whisper from beneath some seats and it immediately made Mulder turn towards it.

There she was. Lying on her side, holding on to a small gun as if it was a life belt. Her left hand coiled under her and her clearly feline face twisted in pain. Her emerald eyes were bright and gazed at him in happy recognition as she showed her obvious canines in a wide grin.

"Nice to see you," she said in the same low voice. "I know, I said we would meet again. But okay, maybe I did not expect things to go like this."

"Kim? Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, he got me, that son of… well…" She grimaced a bit and changed her position with some effort. "But I got him too. The silly oaf."

"How bad is it?" Mulder asked as he kneeled next to her, still scanning the area for signs of Vandenberg. "Need a doctor? Would you trust me to get you one?"

"I just… need a good rest," Kim sighed, twitching slightly. "He got me all right, and it hurt too, but…" She briefly paused and made a disturbed grimace before looking at him again. "He got me with his stupid tranquill... tranc-liser, that's what he did. And I just can't cope with drugs. Far too… Sensitive… Know what I mean? Pretty soon you'll have dark blue fungi growing out of your nostrils from my point of view." Kim managed a brief smile.

"Okay, I see. What can I do?"

"Get me…" Kim's voice briefly trailed off as she looked at something out of focus, then she pulled herself together again. "Get me a couch. I've tried his dirty drugs before. I'll just need liquid. Lot's of water. And a nice sleep."

"But what about-"

"Never mind what!" Kim spitted, briefly piercing Mulder with her green eyes. Then the eyes glazed and she lost trail of him. Slowly, as if trying to fence it off, her head sank towards the concrete floor of the stadium. "Mulder, my canine friend," she whispered. Get me out of here. I'm not… coming along with… Vandenberg. It's not… It's really not fair."

Mulder briefly got up, looking around for his adversary, but Vandenberg was nowhere to be seen. Then he kneeled down next to Kim, taking her fragile body in his arms and lifting her up. He was relieved to find no obvious trails of blood.

"Nice," Kim's sleepy voice sounded as Mulder started to carry her towards the exit. "Figured this when I first saw you. Wanted this… In your arms… Nice…"

Mulder smiled clumsily at the remark but did not say anything. Kim's eyes did not open and he realised that she had drifted into unconsciousness.

As fast as he could, he got down to the car and put Kim at the back seat, covering her with a blanket. With one last look at the Toledo Sports Centre, revealing only the curious stare from Mrs Raymonds, he jumped into the car and drove off.

Still having the centre in the rear-view mirror, he took out his cell phone and dialled Scully.

o o o

_To be continued…_


	4. Part 4

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1._

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 4

"I don't know why I am doing this," Scully muttered. She was sitting on the edge of a bed, examining the unconscious Kimoto Takita. "The right thing to do would be to inform the Bureau about this whole affair."

"The right thing to do does not always produce the right result," Mulder muttered. "How is she?"

"Medically speaking she is on a high dosage of a narcotic drug, most likely a sedative," Scully explained. "In so far as I can judge her from human standards, which I am no longer sure about, she has been overdosed, poisoned, but not in a lethal degree. She should, however, be under professional supervision in stead of this."

"Why Scully, I thought you were a professional," Mulder smiled, then he got serious again. "What more can we do?"

"Keep an eye on her. Make sure she gets some liquid. Water, naturally. She is sweating badly and has also lost bodily fluids in other ways," Scully explained. "You said she told you she needed water? I believe that to be true, judging from her symptoms. For now, all we can do is wait and see."

"So she is not in any serious danger?"

"To be honest, I can't tell exactly," Scully admitted with a sigh, getting up from Kim's bed. "What I can say, is that she has been drugged and that she's probably going to sleep for some time. What I can say, is that this is not the best solution."

"I don't think there's a better one right now," Mulder said, dumping himself into a chair by the window.

"No," Scully nodded, also going for a chair. "And that's just the problem. Neither do I."

The two agents went silent for a moment, as they tried to relax and await the next events in this increasingly strange adventure. The next logical step would be to question Kimoto Takita about this Vandenberg-character, but she could hardly speak at the moment.

"I can't just sit here," Scully suddenly exclaimed and got up from her chair. "Look, I'll go to a friend of mine and get hold of some medicine for Kim. Then we'll be able to anticipate the future with a little more ease, okay?"

"Sure," Mulder answered, adjusting himself in the chair. "I'll wait here."

Scully got her purse and secured her weapon, then she went out through the door and left the motel, wanting to do something other than just sit there.

o o o

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

Mulder was brutally jerked out of his chair by the loud cry of Kim's voice. He jumped up, snatching his gun before he really knew what was happening. Then he noticed, that the feline was twisting and turning in the bed and that her fear, whatever causing it, was not a fear visible to him.

He put the gun back into its holster and went to the bed, trying to calm her down, grasping onto her shoulders and shaking her gently.

"Kim?"

"LEMMEBE!" she cried, making a futile attempt at slapping his face with her fatigued hand.

"Kim? It's okay, it's me, Mulder," he tried, caressing her sweaty brow gently with his one hand. "You're safe here. Really."

Kim's eyes snapped open and she stared at Mulder with tiny dark slits in her glazed eyes, obviously not recognising him.

"Kim? Can you hear me?"

"Plee-hee-heeze," she sobbed, scratching her nose with an unsteady hand.

"Kim, just relax," Mulder begged, wishing that Scully was here. He did not have a clue how cats or other felines reacted on drugs, but there was a familiar glow in Kim's eyes. Whatever Vandenberg had shot her with, it was very potent. "Kim, you're safe here."

"Nooo, never safe," Kim growled. "Never! Tuan allar sera. Arrrrhhh…"

Mulder only just avoided getting vomit all over himself as Kim coiled up in violent convulsions and gave up every last bit of stomach content. All he could do was to support her weary head and try to prevent her from suffocating in it.

"There," he finally said, wiping something from her mouth with the snip of a towel. "Better now?"

"Mull…" Kim stuttered, obviously trying to focus on him.

"That's right," he smiled. "It's me, Fox Mulder. Your canine friend."

"Cannnrrhh…" She coughed.

"Just relax," Mulder continued, gently trying to push Kim back onto her pillow. "I'm here now. You're safe from Vandenberg and-"

"Vandenberg?" Kim exclaimed, her claws flying out from the tips of her fingers. "Mulder!"

"Relax, Kim," the agent insisted. "Don't try to talk now. You're safe here!"

"Vañata, eh sera lai," Kim exclaimed in a coarse voice. "Tur shieen kar, Vañata oldra sera. Vañavara, sera. Eh Vandenberg, sera!"

"I don't understand," Mulder tried, staring desperately at Kim.

"Vandenberg! He's here to take me home. I cannot…" Kim fell back onto the pillow, her eyes closing again. "Please, Mulder. I don't want to go with him."

"Take you home? I don't understand," Mulder said, studying the feline face with caution.

"Exactly what words do you not understand?" Kim snarled in a low voice, still not opening her eyes. "Vandenberg! Is! Here! To! Take! Me! Home!"

"But how…"

"He is partly from my world. From my time, see? He has the full potential of a well trained man from your future and he knows how to use it," Kim explained, wiping her brow with a tired gesture. "Guns, advanced equipment and an iron will to use it. Fake ID, tranquillisers and the worse are no problems to him. You understand now?"

"But how can he bring you back? I'm not sure I understand that. I thought you were stranded."

"I was. I am," Kim nodded. "But he came for me. I found out about it a few weeks back but managed to loose him. Now he's found me again and for some obscure reason, you and your pretty doctor-friend are following him like obedient pets. I really wish I knew what in Bill Clintons name is going on here."

"He claimed to be an FBI-agent. He loured everybody to put him in an operation where he, a guy named Simmons and Scully and I were to search for you."

"Simmons, huh? Tall, tanned and handsome?"

"That's him, yes."

"So he's here too. I guess they've found a way to travel here then. Really travel, not the rackety accidental way I did it."

"They can travel though time?" Mulder asked in a baffled voice. "But that's impossible."

"I did it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I suppose you did, but…"

"I don't know how, but somehow they're here and obviously they know how to get back. Don't ask me how; I'm not a physicist or something."

"What you are telling me…"

"I know, but forget about logic for once. I actually had you figured as being good at that."

"Pardon?"

"Good at forgetting about logic," Kim smiled, finally opening her weary eyes and sending him a teasing glance. "You say he faked being an agent? I guess that means we cannot trust anybody from your bureau then. They may think Vandenberg is right and we're not."

"It could be like that," Mulder nodded. "I don't know how he did it, but Skinner, our AD, put him in charge of the operation."

"Trust no one," Kim smirked. "Where's Doctor Scully?"

"She went to get some medicine," Mulder explained. "She was not too sure about your condition. After all, even Scully had to admit that you're not human."

"You know," Kim said, adjusting herself against the pillow. "I would be calmer when agent Dana Scully was here again. You don't know what that man is capable of doing. If he got hold of her, she would tell him about this place within minutes. No matter what. Trust me."

"Whoa, this is getting too much," Mulder suddenly exclaimed as he got up and went to the minibar to look for some ice-tea. "A man from the future, no, two men from the future, coming here to chase a half-human who is also from the future." He found what he was looking for and eagerly opened it. "And the first two have travelled in time to get here. Are they going to take you back with them? Back to the future? And your world?"

"Guess so," Kim said, reaching for Mulder's ice-tea, which he reluctantly gave her before going to fetch another. "This means that either you are almost as safe as can be or you are in mortal danger. Either he knows something about time-paradoxes and doesn't care about you, or you and your partner are a liability to him. Unwanted witnesses, who should be swiftly and efficiently dealt with. Killed, you know. Terminated. Sleeping with the fishes."

"I get it," Mulder muttered, sipping his ice-tea. "No, actually I don't. I'm not sure."

"Relax," Kim smiled, getting further up in her bed. "If your Scully knows what she's doing, she'll be back soon. Then I can leave you both and you can forget about the whole thing. Come to think about it, I could leave you right now and you could forget the whole thing. I'm feeling much better now, thanks to this nice beverage and your considerate care."

"Nonsense, Kim," Mulder grunted. "You shouldn't go. Not now. I promised to help you, remember?"

"I have not forgotten that," Kim smiled. "Not at all. But I am a greater liability to you than anybody else around here is. If Vandenberg and his sidekick find me here, he may do something very unpleasant."

"More unpleasant than when you shot me with that gun of yours?"

"Got me there," Kim admitted. "Still upset about that? Well, sorry. I-erh…"

"Forget it," Mulder smiled. "It was an accident."

"Yeah, it was. But what ever Vandenberg does, it's rarely an accident."

"Kim, you sound like an advertisement for a cheap action-movie. Is he that bad?"

"Cynical could be the word. Practical. No nonsense."

"I see."

"And quite honestly, two nosy FBI agents left with either amnesia or worse, would hardly be among the worse of his merits, you know."

"Is he really called Vandenberg?"

"Huh?" The question seemed to take Kim by surprise. "Why shouldn't he be? Francis F Vandenberg. Never knew what the F was short off. Why?"

"Nah, just something about it. There's a 'Vandenberg Airfield' down south. Very important place. Very military and hush-hush. I figured it to be a stupid cover."

"As far as I know, it is his real name," Kim smiled. "Who knows, perhaps he has ancestors here. Whoa, I know how to stop him! We could track down his ancestors and kill'em!"

"We could do that?" Mulder hesitated.

"No, off course not. I wouldn't know if we could. Or how to. And I sure wouldn't want to kill anybody because their great-great-great-great grandchild is a menace."

"No, naturally not," Mulder smiled with relief. "Just a peculiar thought. Both this and the entire concept of time-travel. I would have sworn it couldn't be done, you know."

"Considering the things you would swear could be done," Kim smiled. "Considering that, I say you find time-travel pretty far fetched."

"I do. Well, I did," Mulder admitted. "Tell me more about it. That other world of yours. The one with the hard-core magic. Is that the reason, time-travel can be done?"

"Hey!" Kim cried out with a grin. "I just told you. I'm not a physicist or anything remotely like it. I can turn on the television but that doesn't know that I would know how to build it, okay?"

"Okay."

"But my guess is, that it is the magic," Kim sighed, suddenly holding onto her pillow with a fragile expression in her otherwise predatorial face. "The magic of that place is, how can I say it, very potent. Very strange, intangible and first of all very much in contradiction to all the laws of physics you may ever have learned about. If there's a reason for time-travel, this is it. Magic."

"What do you know about the magic?" Mulder asked, handing Kim another ice-tea.

"For real? Next to nothing," Kim sighed. "I can tell you what I've seen, but I cannot explain it."

"I'm listening." Mulder once again took a seat in one of the chairs, leaning forwards in anticipation of Kim's peculiar tales.

"Well, magic…" Kim's voice trailed off as she smiled in a peculiar and slightly inhuman way. Then she looked at Mulder again. "What can I say? Where do I start?"

"Please try," Mulder begged in a serious voice, having a sensation of adventure about this entire situation. He had encountered many things, but magic, simply pure magic, seemed much like something belonging in a fairytale. He had never really faced magic. Or at least, he had never really faced anything that substantially and evidently turned out to be real magic… "You've witnessed magic?"

"Yes. It's not easy to explain without proof, and I do wish I had some substantial evidence for you, but I don't. I have my humble self, a crossbreed from another world, but I cannot prove the existence of the magic or the magicians. You'll have to do without proof."

"I've been living most of my entire life without proof," Mulder grimaced with a sincere expression dawning in his face. "And I believe you."

"Silly thing," Kim grinned. "To believe me. Just because my future-story and my cross-breed-story could be true and because my genetic codes are not like yours, doesn't mean that the rest of me couldn't be delusional. Right?"

"Right!" Mulder laughed. "You caught me off guard there."

"Seems I'm good at that," Kim said with another predatorial laughter. "But at ease, speaking off guard. Listen."

"What?" Mulder shot out of the chair, unholstering his gun as he turned towards the door in anticipation of just about anything.

"They are here," Kim whispered.

"Vandenberg and Simmons?"

"Them!"

Hesitating, Mulder turned his attention towards Kim. Her face was a mask of calm waiting, the face of a predator. And he was not really sure, what she had talked about when she said 'Them'. He was also not too sure she knew herself.

o o o

_To be continued…_


	5. Part 5

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1._

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 5

"They're here," Kim whispered again, her voice quiet but coarse as her glazed eyes seemed to focus on something in another time and place.

"Get down on the floor," Mulder ordered, uncertain if it would change anything. He slid towards the door where he peeked out the window. Outside on the parking lot, three cars were parked. A dog was tearing on its leash by the main building but nothing else showed any signs of alarm.

The one car, a blue Chevrolet, had a few official looking papers in the front window. It could be a rental car and it could be rented by…

Instincts warned Mulder to duck mere moments before the bullet slammed through the window where his head had been, shattering shards of glass all over the crawling FBI-agent. There was not sound of the shot, only a sharp sound as another bullet hit the wall across from the door. Silencers.

"Kim, you all right?" Mulder barked as he tried to find a good shelter from the gunfire.

"No, I'm not all right," Kim yelled back in an angry voice, making Mulder's stomach turn. "I am everything but all right. I'm stranded on another planet in another time and if the so-called authorities get to me, they're gonna stick a needle up my tailed ass! No, I am bloody well not all right. I'm not shot, though. Not yet. How about you?"

"Get under the bed; I think it's the best cover right now. I'll see if I can-"

The rest of Mulder's words drowned in the infernal rampage created as the blue Chevrolet drove into the door, knocking out the door, the frame and a lot of the wall. The car stopped one-and-a-half a metre into the flat, steaming and hissing from the impact.

Mulder got on his feet, pointing his gun at the drivers' seat, not feeling very much surprise when he found it empty. No, this Vandenberg wouldn't be as predictable as to be sitting there. Cautiously, Mulder approached the car, covering his every step with the gun.

"Drop the gun, Mulder!"

The voice was commanding and had the weight of somebody, who was in a position to give orders. Mulder hesitated to look, not liking the authority of the voice.

"Takita, you can creep out from under the bed now. And tell Mulder to drop the gun or I'll fire!"

It could be a trick.

As he watched Kim slowly and insecure emerge from under the bed, Mulder dropped the gun to the floor and slowly started to turn around. When he met Vandenberg's eyes, he saw that the man was paler than he had been at the stadium. A huge stain had darkened his suit in the left side, leaving him sweaty and, obviously, in some pain. His right hand was steady, pointing a big and somewhat strange gun directly at Mulder.

"I don't know how much you know," Vandenberg said in a talkative voice. "But I do know that you have no solid evidence. Now, I request that you leave it at that, as it will only produce problems if you do not keep your knowledge to yourself. Miss Takita is coming with me and that's the end of the story in so far as you are concerned. Do I make myself clear?"

"Are you from the future too?"

"It's not polite to answer a question with a question," Vandenberg declared. "Turn around, lie down at the bed, face down, arms and legs spread. Now."

Mulder sensed the lack of alternatives. Slowly and disheartened, he complied with the orders and started to mount the soft bed, when the scene suddenly shifted. Kim was standing next to the bed when she suddenly jumped towards Mulder in a tackle and at the same time threw something towards Vandenberg, who automatically fired his weapon.

Mulder fell over the bed, halfway wrapped in Kim as he heard the soft whistle of a bullet passing his ear by an inch, dusting him with shards of panelling wood as it hit the wall in front of him. Instinctively he rolled sideways, down from the bed and Kim, trying to find cover and a way to defend himself as another bullet hissed past him and dug a nasty looking hole in the wall.

The gunshots did not sound loud at all and were obviously silenced, but when Vandenberg screamed out in terror, the noise was unbearable. Mulder turned to look at him and found the older man falling to his knees in the middle of the room, the gun falling from his hands as he reached for his ears in a protective gesture. His eyes were wide opened; staring into oblivion as his short scream trailed off into an unfulfilled gasp for air.

"What happened?" Mulder gasped, getting back on his feet, turning to see if Kim was all right.

She was still on the bed where she had fallen after pushing Mulder. Her face was more predatorial than ever, her whiskers trembling and her ears lying flat along her scull. Her green eyes focused on Vandenberg with a determination and precision like a surgeon.

Mulder went silent, trying to comprehend what was happening.

Slowly, almost gracefully, Kim turned her right hand, pointing all five fingers towards Vandenberg's chest, coiling them as if grasping onto something. Vandenberg's heaves for breath became tenser as he jerked, following the movement in Kim's hand. A few droplets of blood appeared from his nostril and his eyes seemed as if they were about to pop out of his head.

"Your heart ripped out," Kim whispered in a gentle voice. "Pain, Commander Francis Vandenberg. Pain. Pain followed by… darkness…"

"Hrnggg…" Vandenberg tried desperately to speak but was unable to catch enough air. "Nnnn…"

Mulder was horrified as he realised what was going on.

"Kim, don't kill him," he said in a low voice. "It's not right."

"You…" Kim's claws made another small gesture, sending Vandenberg to the floor in desperate convulsions, making it obvious that the only reason he didn't scream, was because he could not gulp down enough air to do so. As the atmosphere in the ruined flat became more and more sultry, it occurred to Mulder that Kim was not aware of his presence. Or his words.

"Kim, listen!" Mulder leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. "Kim, don't hurt him anymore!"

For another brief moment, Kim paid no attention to Mulder. Then she exhaled violently and curled up on the bed, sounding like a diver who had been under water just a bit too long. Her shoulder trembled under Mulder's hand as she pulled herself together and looked up.

"You're right," she said in a fatigued voice. "I shouldn't kill him. He is not worth it. He's not really evil or something, you know. Just not on my side either."

"I'm glad you look at it that way," Mulder said with a smile. "Hey, why didn't you do this last time he attacked you?"

"I couldn't," she sighed. "And I can't. The drug he gave me, it impairs my abilities. I've all ready strained them as much as I possibly can. Nothing more will happen for a while. I'm burned out. Empty. I'm not sure I could have killed him, even if I had tried."

"Could you have done it without the drugs?" Mulder asked, turning to pick up Vandenberg's gun. The older man had collapsed onto the floor and not moved since Kim stopped her attack and his eyes were closed, he seemed harmless at the time, barely able to breathe, much less attack.

"Theoretically, perhaps," Kim said in a low voice. "I really don't know. I've never killed anyone. At least not that way. I can't say I've never killed anyone, but…" Her voice trailed off and Mulder noticed a distinct tone of shock in it. What ever had just happened, it had drained her of almost all her energy.

o o o

"What has happened here?"

Mulder almost flew from the bed as he heard the voice. He turned around, relieved to see a familiar face.

"Scully! Am I happy to see you here!"

"You have a funny way of doing interior decorating," she smiled, nodding towards the broken car. Then she got serious and went towards Vandenberg, who still hadn't moved. She knelt next to him, staring to examine him. "What happened?"

"Kim came round," Mulder explained, reaching for a bottle of ice tea to help Kim. "She told me about the magic and then all of a sudden there were shots towards the flat and then this car came in without even knocking."

"Unpleasant," Scully mumbled, trying to provoke a reaction from Vandenberg by pinching his ear. He groaned quietly, but didn't move. "What happened to agent Vandenberg? He's pretty badly messed up."

"As is Kim," Mulder explained, trying to make the silent feline drink some ice tea. "She attacked him mentally. Something about making him think that she was ripping his heart out."

"Ouch!"

"It worked. He fell where you found him. But she was really not up to it so she's pretty exhausted right now. Which reminds me. Did you get that medicine you were going for?"

"Yes, I did," Scully replied. "It's actually some amphetamine and similar drugs; I figured it could come in handy here. As is, I'm not to sure though. In either case, this man is the one, who really needs medicine. And a surgeon."

"A surgeon?"

"Yes. He has been hit in the lower left side, a penetrating wound. Mainly a flesh wound, but there easily could be internal bleedings. He could manage a day or so, but by then, this would get terminal."

"A small calibre gun?" Mulder asked, reaching for the small weapon, he had found in Kim's hand at the stadium.

"Yes, pretty small, but at point blank. It seems that agent Vandenberg, who ever he is, is a tough man. It must have hurt a lot to walk around with this."

According to Kim, he is a pro of sorts," Mulder explained. "Her gun was small and she claimed to have gotten a clear shot at him. Probably her work."

"Probably. But the mental attack or what ever it was…" Scully raised her head, looking at Mulder as she stressed the last words. "…only served to make it worse. If he doesn't get to a hospital soon, he could die."

"Scully…"

The concern in Mulder's voice made Scully look up, just in time to watch as her partner slipped the unconscious feline onto the bed. She got up from Vandenberg and came to the bed, automatically reaching to check the pulse.

"She just passed out on me," Mulder mumbled. "Must be my deodorant."

"Her heart-rate is very fast," Scully said. "As is her breath. That's it! I'm not taking any responsibility for this anymore. They both need to go to a hospital. We'll have to worry about the consequences later."

"But what about Kim?" Mulder asked. "You know as well as I do that she'll get into a lot of trouble this way."

"She'll get into a lot of trouble if she doesn't go to a hospital," Scully replied. "I just can't take that responsibility. And neither can you!"

Mulder knew his partner when she was like this. With a sigh, he also realised that she was right. With a sidelong glance towards Kim, he snapped out his cellular phone and put a finger on the first key to dial 911.

"Stop right there, agent Mulder!"

Agent Randolph Simmons entered through the hole in the wall, pointing his normal but obscenely big gun at the two FBI agents. With a short glance, he seemed to take in the entire situation and decide in accordance.

"Let go of the phone, agent Mulder, and raise your hands, both of you. I would not hesitate to shoot."

"Where did you emerge from?" Mulder asked as he dropped the phone onto the floor.

"I was told to wait outside. I watched the whole thing and awaited my chance. I also told the landlord of this establishment that this was an FBI-affair and that he should stay away."

"What are you gonna do now? Your colleague is downed and as is your target, Kimoto Takita."

"Leave that to me," Simmons replied in a calm voice. "I've got the situation under control."

"I'm glad to hear that," Mulder grunted, peeking at the scenery.

"This has not been quite the way it was supposed to be," Simmons admitted, gesturing for Scully and Mulder to move away from the bed. "And I am sorry about that. But as things are, it can still work out. Go to the other wall and kneel on the floor."

"What can work out, agent Simmons?"

"Don't ask and you'll not regret anything," Simmons replied as he slowly reached for something in his other pocket.

"How are you, Vandenberg and Kimoto Takita gonna make the journey back to your own time?" Mulder asked straightforward, ignoring Scully's eyes as he did so.

"How much do you know, agent Mulder?" Simmons asked in a tense voice.

"Enough, agent Simmons," Mulder answered. "But you can't kill me. Think of the time-paradox. For all you know, your life may depend on my survival."

"My life may also depend on your silence," Simmons replied, finally retrieving the item, he had been searching for in his pocket. Another gun, even if this one did seem somewhat alien to the environment.

"Mulder, shut up!" Scully whispered in a low voice.

"You can't stop me from knowing things," Mulder continued, ignoring Scully's pleading eyes. "I have notes, files, pictures, samples. And you can't make all that disappear. Add to that that your partner is in critical condition. You can't make it. Stay here and I may be able to help you!"

"You couldn't help me even if you wanted to, agent Mulder," Simmons said, revealing a touch of insecurity in his voice.

"Simmons…" Vandenberg's voice broke in, trembling, weak, but firm. "Why don't you tell him who's gonna win the Baseball Championship 1999 and who's gonna be President of the European Union 2012 while you're at it?"

"Boss!"

"I hate when you call me boss, agent Simmons. Is Kim out cold?"

"I think so," Simmons answered in an intimidated voice. "In either case, there are two of us now, Sir."

"And three of them," Vandenberg replied, slowly getting on his feet, supporting himself on the edge of a table; his face distorted from the strain. He reached for the smaller of the two guns, Simmons had in his hands "Good thinking to keep the landlord at bay, Simmons."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Mulder, you really are a right royal pain, did you know that?" Vandenberg turned towards the two agents and gave Mulder a sharp stare across the muzzle of the gun, a cross between anger and admiration. "If times were different, heh, I would ask you to work with me."

As the two agents watched helplessly, Simmons walked towards Kim and checked her vital signs. He put down his gun and took out a kind of collar, which he placed around her neck and locked with a soft click. Then he activated a switch on the collar, causing Kim to twitch slightly and then relax again.

"What are you doing to her?" Mulder asked frantically. "I demand an explanation."

"I wouldn't concern myself with her now, agent Mulder," Vandenberg replied in an icy voice. "She's safer right now than you are. You should know that much."

"Stop sounding like a cheap B-movie," Mulder demanded. "Where are you taking her?"

"Far away from your area of concern," Vandenberg said. "Agents, it's been nice talking to you, but I must demand that you lie down as I am about to have you both sedated."

"What are you up to?"

"Agent Mulder, you're trying my patience by asking questions, whose answers you'll have no use for anyway," Vandenberg barked. "Now lie down or take the unpleasant bruising of a fall."

"Mulder, do as he says," Scully appealed in a coarse voice. "I don't think he is bluffing."

"I'm not, agent Scully," Vandenberg nodded. "And the only thing you can change now is the method of sedation. The comfortable one or the uncomfortable one. Given the circumstances, the latter can have unpleasant side-effects."

Reluctantly, both Scully and Mulder got down on their knees and onto the floor. Mulder hadn't felt this desperate for years. Not since They took…

"What can you tell me about the future, Vandenberg?" he suddenly yelped. "Do you know anything about Samantha?"

"Samantha Mulder?" Vandenberg asked in surprise, the first surprise Mulder had observed on the older mans face.

"Yes, Samantha Mulder. My sister!"

"Boss…" Simmons voice broke in. "I don't think it's a good idea."

Mulder looked up only to see the muzzle of Vandenberg's ordinary gun, pointing at him in a steady grip. Obviously Vandenberg was considering killing him.

"Think of the time-paradox, Vandenberg!" he cried. "Your entire world could depend on what you do here and now!"

"Don't you think I know that?" Vandenberg groaned back in a strained voice. "I do."

"But what's that got to do with Samantha?"

The world suddenly turned black…

o o o

_To be continued…_


	6. Part 6 Epilogue

_Title: "Credidi me Felem Vidisse"_

_Author: KimotoCat_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary, disclaimer and all that are in part 1._

**Credidi me Felem Vidisse**

Part 6 - Epilogue

Popcorn.

The smell of old popcorn was all over the place and as he opened his eyes, he discovered a pile of them in front of his face. Benches and concrete, old snacks and litter. He was lying on his side between rows of seats in a sports-centre.

Mulder barely made it onto his knees before he threw up. Not violently, just a few gasps of unpleasant vapours and liquid, leaving behind a disgusting taste in his dry mouth.

"Mulder, are you all right?" Scully's coarse voice broke in.

"Scully?" he exhaled, fighting to gain some kind of balance. "Scully, what happened? Where's Vandenberg? Where's Kim?"

He felt the calming touch of Scully's hand on his shoulder as she tried to support him. Somehow the touch made him relax slightly. How often he had experienced that; Scully's hand in an effort to help him in some situation where he needed help. Where he needed Scully…

"We must have been knocked out somehow," Scully said as she came into Mulder's view, a concerned and tired look on her face. "There are no signs of either Vandenberg or Kim here. Or Simmons for that matter. How are you feeling?"

"I've been better," he admitted, finally getting upright and regretting it one moment later as he found himself reeling slightly and saw traces of more vomit on the concrete floor. "We've been knocked out?" he then exclaimed in a concerned voice. "What do you mean, we? You too?"

"Yes, Mulder, me too. Maybe we've been sedated. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Remember?" Mulder's voice trailed off as he realised his own insecurity. He was not at all certain about what he remembered from… He suddenly felt vertigo overwhelming him and leaned heavily against the nearest seat. "I'm not sure. I was here, as was Vandenberg. You phoned… I saw Kim. At least, I think I saw Kim."

"I phoned you to warn you about Vandenberg," Scully said, slowly taking out her cellular phone. "And then I went straight here. That much I am sure off, but after that, it gets blurry."

"Kim was here," Mulder said, rubbing his forehead with a clinched fist and slowly sinking down to a kneeling position. "I'm sure of it. Vandenberg must have… done something."

"This is agent Dana Scully of the FBI," the other agent said into the phone. "I am at the Toledo Sports Centre and we are in need of an ambulance. Two agents down, possibly drugged. And we need backup too…"

o o o

It was not difficult for the FBI to find solid evidence that Kimoto Takita had been at the Toledo Sports Centre. Nor was it a problem to prove that both "agents" Vandenberg and Simmons had been there, leaving both fingerprints and witnesses, as Mrs Raymonds had watched both men come and go several times, flashing their false badges at her and telling her to keep distance.

It turned out more problematic to explain the wrecked motel-room with an equally wrecked rental-car parked inside it. The room was rented in Mulder's name and the Clark could testify that it was Mulder who had come to get the key, telling that he was with two other people. Investigations revealed traces of both of the missing men and the feline as well as Mulder and Scully, but none of the agents remembered anything from the room.

Bloodstains on the floor and the one wall turned out possibly to be from Francis Vandenberg, and a smaller bloodstain on the quilt of the bed obviously came from Kim. Other than that, nothing indicated what really had happened there.

Agents Scully and Mulder were kept under supervision for two days at the hospital, mainly because of their obvious symptoms of a drug-related amnesia. The exact nature of the drug was not determined, all though needle marks and various reactions did indicate that they had been injected with a very potent substance.

Both the agents recovered fully from their experience, but neither of them regained any memory of the events at the motel.

After another two days, the medical advisor of the FBI recommended the two back in service, where their first assignment was an attempt of tracking down Kimoto Takita, following the leads achieved by two colleagues. But nobody at Clean-Bean had seen Katherine Thompson after the events at the Toledo Sports Centre. An interview with Mr Thorndyke revealed his anger towards the agents, as he apparently blamed them for making Miss Thompson leave without any notice.

Soon another case came up and the two agents were put to investigate a case in Bismarck, North Dakota along with a colleague, an old friend of theirs.

They did not find any further leads or any information leading to the exposure or capture of Francis Vandenberg or Randolph Simmons. Nor did they hear anything else from Kimoto Takita or her alias, Katherine Thompson.

That is, a few days later, Mulder came home to his flat, tired from a couple of long days in North Dakota and a peculiar incident down in a near by park. Weary and confused, he had put the key in the lock before he noticed the edge of brown paper, barely visible under the edge of his door.

Immediately wide awake again, he leaned forwards and gently pulled it out, discovering it to be the end of a cheap, brown envelope.

He opened the door and entered all ready tearing at the envelope to see what was inside. It was a letter and a photography; one of those long bands with four pictures, taken in a snapshot automatic on a railway station and usable for passports or public papers. And the smiling face on all four pictures was the one of a feline woman, green eyes staring back at Mulder as he gazed at the pictures, canine teeth shining in a wide, almost inhuman grin.

Then he looked at the letter:

_Washington DC, 1999._

_Very Special Agent Fox Mulder, I am sorry to tell you that I am leaving Washington. I finally got rid of Francis Vandenberg and his merry sidekick, but I cannot expect to count myself that lucky once more._

_Unfortunately I have the idea that Vandenberg made you two forget the more interesting parts and I'm not too sure what he will do next. If I were him, I would expect you to be a good guideline to find me. That's why I don't tell you where I'm going. I am sorry, but it is probably better this way. As a pro, I'm sure you understand._

_I know, I am just mumbling away in the most confusing way. But first I am still a bit drowsy from Vandenberg's stupid drugs and secondly I don't know how much you would remember anyway. And I am also not to sure that I should remind you of anything of it. Just as long as you keep in mind that Vandenberg isn't evil or something, but he is your enemy in this. He sure is my enemy in this. If you see him again, arrest him as an illegal immigrant or something._

_I'll go to another part of the US. I'm not sure I could not fake my way out of your lovely nation, but your society demands papers for almost everything, not least flying via international airlines and believe it or not, but I hate sailing. If I keep a good distance from Washington, I feel pretty certain that I can manage to hide in the United States, as long as I keep a low profile, hide my whiskers and work for low wages. And yes, keep away from cat burglaries…_

_You and I are going to meet again. When we do, I'll help refreshen your memory in so far as I am able to and perhaps then some. My abilities will not be of much help here, but I was there right till they sedated you and your redheaded partner and I did hear most of what you and the others said._

_Say hi to Scully from me, she was really a great help too. I really feel that I owe the two of you a big one. You have a really good partner there and mind you, Mulder; she is the fox of you two!_

_I'll have to stop now as the bus is leaving soon. Whoa, I hate driving in a bus, but I don't think I can go back to my flat for the rest of my money now. Take care of yourselves and remember to feed your fish. I'll see you again if I can help it._

_Keep the pictures. I have one of you too, remember?_

_Kind regards – Kim_

Mulder read the letter twice, then he put it on the table and looked at her face again. So sincerely feline, predatorial and yet with its own subtle grace. He wished he remembered the events at the motel, but it was gone. What ever Vandenberg had done, he had done it well.

Why was it that he always met these people? People with great secrets, which they willingly shared with him. It was as if it was bait, just enough to keep him going on. Just enough to keep him following the alternative trails in a world where science held an explanation to almost everything.

Perhaps science also held an answer to Kimoto Takita.

Fox Mulder found himself willing to take another step along the unauthorised routes in order to find that answer.

With a smile, he folded up the pictures and put them in his wallet. Another picture of a friend, whom he was looking forward to see again.

o o o

_The end?_

o o o

April 1999 by KimotoCat

o o o


End file.
